#25 Get a Brazilian

Warning: While I haven't got too graphic about anything, I will be talking about getting my privates waxed. So if you're squeamish about talking about anything to do with genitals, well, you've been warned. Bec.

I think this is the most talked about item on the list. Could be because people are fascinated by the idea of Steven and I inflicting pain on ourselves for a bucket list item, but my guess is simply that people like thinking about me naked.

The time for talk was over though. It was time to get it done. Our first attempt was with a big salon in the city who, only thirty minutes before our appointment, informed us that we weren't allowed to take photos (despite us having asked weeks earlier). We cancelled the appointment in disgust. You can therefore thank us for that decision and also thank Soul's Desire for being perfectly happy for us to document the morning in pictures for your enjoyment.

Soul's Desire is a little salon that owner Cassie has built out the back of her house in Southern Canberra. It was the perfect venue for Steven and I to go to as it was quiet and private, allowing us to make lots of noise and joke around. I really like how one wall of the salon next to the bed was a large image of a forest - it really allowed you to focus on it and escape the reality that she was inflicting pain upon a region you tend to protect from pain.

Steven, ready to go and looking brave

I arrived a little late (c'mon, it was 9am Saturday morning!), and so Steven was already ready to go on the "operating table". After barging in and taking a few photos, I settled in on the other side of the wall to relax and listen to Steven's screams.

... Which weren't coming! Steven happily chatted away to me and the therapist only pausing briefly every now and then for a quick, "Ouch". It didn't sound too bad at all! Steven likened it to being hit with a paintball - a quick burst of pain/stinging, but afterwards it wasn't too bad. The therapist said that Steven has very "relaxed hair". We weren't really sure what that meant.

Steven: post-waxing, looking red and mildly shell-shocked

After about 35mins and conversations ranging from Ross Noble to people who giggle while being waxed to, of course, other bucket list items (the therapist commented we were not the first to come in for some sort of bucket list!); Steven was done. A little red in places, but he seemed to be walking straight, if a little gingerly.

I was ready.

I headed in and took off my clothes. I got to my shirt and pondered, "How necessary is it to take your shirt off when you're getting waxed down below?" I thought it was unnecessary, but then figured, that as Steven had his off, I may as well take mine off as well so he wasn't embarrassed. On reviewing the photos I now notice (as you probably do) that he had a shirt on the whole time! Guess that shows how much attention I pay when taking photos in a room with a man with no pants on!

Afterwards, when we were having coffee, Steven did comment that he thought it was strange when he walked into the room and I wasn't wearing a shirt, but he thought that it much have just been my preferred way to receive pain... Naked.

Anyway, it was time to get on with it. I took off my shirt; got on the bed and mentally prepared...

We thought for amusement we would film my reactions to the first strip, and here they are for your enjoyment:

Waxing in Progress...

The procedure went as follows:

• Apply some pre-wax gel/cream stuff to the area - this felt fine
• Put a small amount of hot wax on the next area to strip - this felt strange, but not too bad at all
• Let the wax dry - the feeling I usually got was of impending dread
• Pick at the end of the wax to get it started - this hurt. It was like plucking the hairs one by one.
• Once the wax could be held onto, whip it off quick - this hurt too. Luckily it was all over in one go... but the pain lingered more than Steven had led me to believe.

It actually wasn't too bad initially. You could see in the video above I'm in pain, but not a huge deal of pain. However, as the waxing continued it got worse and worse as the whole area started to get more and more sensitive. Annoyingly also, the therapist had to pluck stragglers afterwards - it's much more painful to be plucking hairs in an area that's just been waxed than one that hasn't!

It turns out too that I'm a "giggler". Yes, I giggled a lot when getting waxed. Maybe it's my way of dealing with the pain. ... Though I'm not sure what that means for any improvised comedy I might giggle at...

Steven thought it would be funny to record me giggling while getting waxed:

The therapist commented that I had "healthy hair". I'm holding on to that and quoting it again here because I can then compare it to Steven's "relaxed hair". I think THIS must be the reason I was in a lot more pain than he was! It has nothing to do with him being braver! Nope, no sir-ee. No way Jose. Not a chance. I'm tough I am. Those screams? Nah, those are normal sounds when a young woman yanks healthy hair out of your private parts!

Brad: Post-waxing and looking red and relieved it's over

Anyway, 45mins and probably a bunch more excuses later, I was done. We posed for a few photos and then I delicately put my pants back on. I didn't want to check out the results yet - I felt like down below I would find a shrivelled red bleeding blob.

My immediate reaction afterwards was that it was certainly unpleasant, but if the results were good and (as the therapist assured us) it got easier the more often you did it; then I could probably put up with this once every couple of months. Steven and I thanked Cassie and went to have a consolatory coffee.

I think this is the way I react to people after
they've spent 45min inflicting pain upon me:
By taking photos with them

An hour later, I was feeling... Sticky. There was still little leftover bits of wax down there and it felt awkward. I tried not to concentrate on any other feelings going on in the region. I really wanted to have a shower, but resisted as the water was likely to feel kind of painful on my very sensitive sensitive parts.

Eight hours later I was feeling... More or less the same. So I went and had the shower. It stung! Carefully, I guided appropriately temperatured water over the area and cleaned up any remaining wax. I caught a glimpse of myself naked in the mirror, I looked... Different. Strange. Weird. Hard to put it into words. Different is probably most accurate.

One week later I was feeling... Let down. Too many hairs still around (or having grown back already) didn't really make it seem particularly smooth. My groin was a little scratchy.


Two weeks later and I'd made my decision... I'll never do it again. My hairs had already started growing back (seriously? After two weeks?), and I wouldn't want to have to get it done that frequently. While it's not too itchy, it is still mildly uncomfortable, and it's not worth the risk of ingrown hairs, the initial pain for little payback (in my opinion).

Thanks for the new experience Steven, I've learned something.

#19: Learn to Surf

The boys and I were heading down to the coast for our annual "boys weekend". It's usually filled with beer, beach cricket, crass jokes, XBox games and turning pretty much everything into a competition... and therefore always a fun time!

Given that Mike W and I were both going to be at the coast, we looked up surfing lessons so that we could complete #19. We even invited the other boys!

So it was that seven of us were ready to go at the Broulee Surf School at 10:30am. Believe me, this is quite an achievement on a boys coast trip weekend to get up and ready to go by this time! That's when they told us the surf was too lousy to do the class and... Could we wait a couple of hours? Great.

It didn't take too long to come up with a backup plan... Hang out at the beach. So we went down to the beach and chilled out, watching a group of would-be surfers going out for a lesson... Wait. What? Hadn't we just been told that we couldn't...? Oh well...

A couple of hours of beach cricket later and we were ready to go again. We were informed that the surf was still pretty lame, but we figured we may as well go out now.



Mike D and Adam celebrate their natural skill

Quay paddles out

The lesson started with us learning how to catch the waves while lying down on our boards. This was pretty easy.




The instuctor was "extremely" impressed
with my board-standing ability

Barnes shows how it's done

 Next up, we had to learn how to actually stand on the boards once we'd caught a wave. This is the much trickier "step" (awful pun completely intended).






A dainty dismount from Mike D

In order to learn this difficult skill, we headed back to the beach, where we were put through our paces - lying down on the board, putting our hands on the side of the board, standing on the board.









Yes, it all sounds rather easy... and you know what - it IS easy. On the sand. As soon as we got out to the water, it was a different prospect.



Fergus gives it a go

So far so good...

... Though this is how I usually ended up

By the end of the day, most of us were able to catch a wave, then get ourselves up on the board; but we'd often fall off after that. We're giving ourselves the excuse that it was because the waves were so weak... Basically as soon as you got on top of the board you just sunk to the bottom because the wave couldn't carry you anymore.


That's our excuse and we're sticking to it.

It was a fun day and everyone enjoyed it. We even said that we should do it again (maybe next year's boys trip). I was extremely sore for a few days afterwards - I think I pulled some muscles in my back - but it was worth it.

Thanks Mike for suggesting one of my favourite items on the list - surfing is something every Australian should try once; and certainly makes for a break from all the silly challenging stuff!

(Oh, and thanks to Kishen too for being camera man for the day)

#8: Climb the highest mountain in the ACT and have a shot at the top

It was time to get started on one of the more "longer term" bucket list items. Being the only multi-part item on the list, #8 - climbing the highest mountain in each State/Territory of Australia really needed to get started sooner rather than later. So it was with that in mind that Kunnal and I decided to climb Mt Bimberi, the highest mountain in the ACT.

Mt Bimberi was an appropriate first mountain, given that we live in the ACT. Also, given that Kunnal had some budget constraints this year, we thought it would be a good day-trip one to tick off as we wouldn't have to do much travelling. Little did we know that our "day-trip" was going to be epic.

Not only is Mt Bimberi the third-highest of the climbs we have to do (at 1912m), but it's not exactly accessible from the ACT. We did the calculations and we would have to wake up at 5am in order to even get to the start point of our walk and have enough time to complete the 22km trek before daylight hours end. It was going to be a long day.

Setting off walking at 9am

So to get to Mt Bimberi from Canberra you have to drive down to Cooma, then up round the western edge of the ACT on the NSW side. There was then a dirt road for around 100km before getting to a gate that signifies the start of the walk up to Mt Bimberi.

We set off at a brisk pace, but after about a km or so, we encountered our first slope... and it was steep. We plodded our way up, pondering whether or not we should have trained more or something. As we crested the hill we were greeted by our first view of Mt Bimberi:

Mt Bimberi looming in the distance

"Remote area navigation"? We had a compass... Does that count as prepared?

 The next hour or so passed by uneventfully. I was very much enjoying getting out for a bushwalk as it had been quite a while since last I'd done one.

Posing at Murrays Gap. It might not look like it, but that grass
behind us is growing out of what is basically a big puddle

It was when we got to Murrays Gap - the gap between Mt Bimberi and its "next door neighbour" Mt Murray, that things got a little more interesting.

The border between NSW and ACT is defined by the ridge of mountains we would be following. So Murrays Gap was actually the first point during the walk we actually encountered the ACT. We would then be following the border up to the peak. We found walking the state line interesting enough, but what was worrying us was that Murrays Gap was pretty much a swamp after recent rains.

As you can tell from our attire in the photos, we were well prepared for walking through a swamp. Sneakers handle that without any problem. *cough* Our socks were soaked.

Kunnal walking past some navigation stones.
Or "pans" as we were corrected into saying by fellow hikers.

This also marked the point from which there was no longer a marked path. We would be bush-bashing from here on in as we followed the ridge up to the top.

The reality wasn't that bad. While there wasn't actually a path, many hikers had done the same route and had left little piles of rocks to show the way (in case "keep going up" was too confusing a navigation technique). I think this spoiled the mood a little as it no longer felt we were going into unexplored territory. That mood was spoiled further when we encountered a group heading down who had been to the top already (we also met another group on the way down - guess that's what happens on a long weekend!). It didn't matter, the walk was still great.

It was steep going, but eventually it levelled out and we leapt up onto a pile of rocks wondering if we'd made it or not... Then we spotted the actual peak half a km away...

Oh. THERE it is!

 The last section was a very easy walk and we gleefully leapt up to the summit and plopped ourselves down to enjoy the view.

Looking out of the ACT

Mt Bimberi's poor "twin" Mt Murray.
Only 60m shorter, but who wants to climb the second tallest???

 We spent about an hour at the top. We ate lunch, took photos, checked out the view...












Did shots of absinthe...

Planked...

... but eventually it was time to head back down.

Chilling out at Oldfields Hut

We relied a lot more heavily on the piles of rocks on the way down, as no longer could we navigate by just heading upwards - every direction was downwards! It took us quite a bit of backtrackking and second guessing ourselves when encountering thick bush, but eventually we got back down to Murrays Gap; and after Kunnal had recovered from a brief shock after nearly stepping on a snake in our least favourite swamp, we were heading back to the car.



The view from Oldfields Hut

It had been about eight and a half hours of trekking by the time we got to Oldfields Hut (from where we'd taken our first photos of Mt Bimberi), so we just had to sit ourselves down for a rest. And a banana. There were foldaway chairs in the hut so that made it extra comfortable...

It felt like we spent about 5 mins at Oldfields Hut, but when we checked our watches, it turned out we'd been there for more like 20. We didn't care.

We stumbled up over the last hill and down the slope we'd found so steep to begin with. The last few km felt so long after they had passed so quickly earlier in the day, but eventually we got back into the car... Ready for our 4 hour drive back home.

I'm really looking forward to climbing the other mountains. Mt Bimberi was tough, but it was an incredible day, and this bucket list item is certainly shaping up to be one of my favourites. Thanks Kunnal!